I thought I could repost this article from 2015 as a featured post in front of all others because I hope that others might be helped, too, when they are reminded of how we can more clearly perceive God’s still and small voice in our restless and noisy times. May God bless you all who still drop by on here!

I think it got more and more obvious to some lately that I spend less time on the internet, both on my blogs, on other blogs and on social media. Not that it had been my initial intention to do so, yet there were some incidents in my family that were like a real “wake-up call” for me. Writing blog posts and comments should not be a burden, right? If I was all alone and had no widely ramified kinship and other tasks apart from the net, I would perhaps go on with writing and reading other blogs as I did before. Although I tried several times during the last year (yes, my blogs will have their first anniversary in June) to step back a bit, I needed to be freed by God recently to really do so, finally. As a dear brother, Michael Clark, often says, “In Him we live and move and have our being, NOT our doing.” I truly love the wisdom of these few words. As long as I cannot rest in Him, I cannot really do a “good” thing for God, either. That’s for sure, since disturbance and a peaceful loving heart rarely go together.

Just recently I realized that the quieter my soul became, the more directly I could hear what God really wanted to let me know. It is not even necessary that God uses words. There is a sudden and immediate awareness of what is true and right and pure, even without words. It seems to me that God offers His help and wisdom to us all day long and also during the night in our dreams. However, we are so used to “run around in circles” (even in our minds) that the clarity of His silent speaking is easily getting lost.
As for the experience of hearing God’s voice in dry land where we might suffer (spiritually) from thirst and deprivations of life, I found the following excerpt by Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel quite helpful and enlightening, too.

The Hebrew word for “wilderness” (מִדְבַּר = midbar) coincidentally shares the same consonants word for the term מְדַבֵּר (mĕdĕbēr = “speaker”). Philo of Alexandria and some of the Hassidic mystics suggest that the wilderness is precisely where God reveals Himself to His people—and not in the cacophonous uproar of the city, where human beings ignore the Voice of God speaking.[1]

Mother Theresa once said, “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” The silence of nature speaks volumes, but without words—simply by being present to the power of the Divine that infuses its being with life and purpose. [2]

It is no accident that spiritual people throughout history discovered how the דְּמָמָה דַקָּה “still small voice” (1 Kgs. 19:12–13) is the vehicle through which God makes His Presence known, even though this “small voice” more often than not is drowned out by the cacophonous world we live in. According to Michael Fishbane, “The phrase may be a deliberate paradox—an attempt to articulate the voiced silence of God’s presence, through reference to a sound (kol) that is both silently still דְּמָמָה (demāmāh) and audibly thin דַקָּה (dāqǎ).” Fishbane’s Zen-like observation succinctly captures the subtlety of how God communicates, within the stillness of our being—that is where He is heard. This mystery flows from the depths of eternity; pointing to great immensity of the Divine; yet, God’s immensity is never so far removed from the human heart that seeks truth and comfort.

Israel discovers her faith in the wilderness and later constructs a Tabernacle (Mishkan) to symbolize God’s abiding Presence among them. In its precincts, God does not speak “to Moses” rather, Moses hears the Divine Word resonate from within his innermost being and conscience. Throughout Jewish tradition, the Mishkan represents God’s triumph over the forces of chaos. Creating a sacred place within the hostile precincts of the wilderness is a spiritually suggestive metaphor for moderns—for even as we enter our own personal wilderness, God beckons us to make a holy space for God to dwell with us as we traverse the מִדְבַּר.

[1] Philo asks: Why didn’t God give the Ten Commandments in a city? Why did he choose the desert? His answer may be paraphrased briefly as follows: The city is not a safe place; they are full crime. 2) The city is a symbol of vanity. In contrast, the desert is characterized by simplicity. 3) The life in the desert posed less distractions; being in the desert enabled a person to purify himself and become more conducive for receiving the Divine oracles. 4) In the desert, the Israelite people learned that the Ten Commandments were not the products of human beings. It was in the desert the people came to know God through the various miracles of the manna, the quail, the making of sweet water, etc. Philo observes, “For he who gave abundance of life’s necessaries also granted the resources for the good life; for living they needed food and drink, which they found without making any preparations”(Philo Decalogue 2-7).

It should be obvious to us that the Lord isn’t going to scream at us over the sound of the TV, stereo, and the bustle of our own footsteps as we rush about in the energy of the flesh. Too often I have been guilty of this very thing, being too Martha-ish.. He tries to remind me it’s His work to DO, and mine to just BE…..as I trust Him.

“For thus said the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. And ye would not:Isa 30:15

Hi Suzanne..How we are going to find that quiet time with the Lord Jesus in the coming turbulent days is going to be a real test. I truly believe there will be days when all we can do is call on His Name and say “help, Lord”, only in CAPS.
Blessings,
Scarlett 🙂

“Mother Theresa once said, “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” The silence of nature speaks volumes, but without words—simply by being present to the power of the Divine that infuses its being with life and purpose. [2]”

It is the same for me, dear Ken. God has put me in a city and I truly need time to get away with my bike or to head to the woods with the car in order to take a prayer walk. If I can hear Him in a rural region, I can hear Him in the city, too. But sometimes the inner noise is getting too much so that I have to somehow “run away” from the city. 😉

What you said about reading my blog really made me smile. Thank you very much for your encouragement, my brother. 🙂

A beautiful post. By all means, Susanne, attend to the needs of your soul (and your family) first.

As you say, God does not call us to witty retorts. Nor even to the eloquence of poetry and profound statements of faith. These may be an outgrowth of our interaction with Him (if the beauty of your poetry is any indication).

Above all, however, God calls us to know, love, and serve Him. That call must resonate in our hearts. Distractions can drown it out, a danger this technological age poses to everyone of us. The barrage of information, images, and sheer noise can deaden our senses. We see the effect on our children, who demand greater and greater stimulation.

How ironic that wilderness — coming sometimes in the form of disappointment, rejection, and loneliness — should be where we can hear God’s voice best.

Dear Susanne, you wrote, “As long as I cannot rest in Him, I cannot really do a “good” thing for God, either. That’s for sure, since disturbance and a peaceful loving heart rarely go together. Just recently I realized that the quieter my soul became, the more directly I could hear what God really wanted to let me know.”

Resting in the Father is more important to Him than all the works we might conjure up “for” Him. In Hebrew the warning is strong…

“Let us therefore fear, lest, although a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it…. There remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” (Hebrews 4:1-11 KJ2000)

It is in His rest that we can discover what it is that God has designed for us to do as the Spirit leads. Paul wrote,

“For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 KJ2000)

It is NOT of our works, but HIS. And God has foreordained certain works for us to walk in from the foundation of the world. Who can guess what they might be and do them by their own strength? All we can do is what the Bible calls “dead works” if we do not first rest and then walk totally by faith from that position of abiding IN His rest. This is one of the hardest lessons for most Christians to learn and many will never learn it I am afraid. Our “can do” attitudes are nothing more than rebellion.
We will never learn what it means to blow with the wind of the Spirit and live by HIS leading as long as our flesh is trying to do great things for God.

“Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.”
(Matthew 7:21-23 KJVCNT)

Well, done, my sister! Thanks for sharing your walk with us. It is always so refreshing to read your honest and heartfelt personal discoveries as you walk in the Spirit. You are an inspiration to us all!

Your response was very encouraging to read, dear Michael, and yes, these Scriptures fit, too.

Maybe, I should add that we can’t do anything to enter His rest than seek Him until He wants to be found. That can be exhausting at times when we have to wait for a long time until God shows up. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles in the Kingdom of God… 😉 His doing can never be predicted.

Susanne, this is sooooo true. I can’t tell you how often I have sought Him in prayer for a while and then felt nothing, so I get distracted by “doing” something else and go on about my day. It is really hard for me to just wait. What a test it is for a doer like me.
Then once in a while I can feel Him show up when I want to be getting something done and THAT is even more of a test to see if I will stop my doings and rest in His presence! What a “game of cat and mouse” He does to see if we really want to commune with Him in His rest!
Father, please do what it takes to make me more sensitive to your Son and your will and less self-willed on my part. Put a hunger in my heart so that you are all I want. Amen.

Amen, same here, Michael. I even think it is similar for everyone since we are not used to WAIT for a long time, esp. in our culture where all we need has to be kept handy. Alas, that does NOT work with God. His timing is never ours as long as our old nature is concerned. “Game of cat and mouse” is funny, particularly regarding God! 😀

‘ceased from his own works’ ….. As Michael wrote on Hebrews I also read in a cafe the other day a place I go alone to read the Word of God and it so struck me Susanne about how we have to cease from all of our works for if we don’t God considers this unbelief. It is a challenge all the time to be quiet. The hardest challenge I find is the mental noise in my head and of late I’ve really prayed to the LORD about this. I prayed for peace to fall upon me like a river and this was at 4.30 am UK time. I just couldn’t stop all the traffic inside. I knew the only way to get rid of this was to pray and finally after writing the peace came and I went back to sleep. I do believe it is the area where the devil can have a field to play in and I know it is only Jesus who can restore the balance and peace we need. I’m so glad you wrote Susanne and I am thinking of you as God guides you through this part of your life for only He knows what is best for YOU! Thank you ….. jacqui xx

You’re welcome to my writing on here, dear Jacqui. ❤ I do admit I did not feel inspired nor did I feel any nudge from the Lord while doing so since I am kind of indifferent, i.e. without feelings, still. I think you might also say that I am walking by faith alone. 😉 You wrote,

“It is a challenge all the time to be quiet. The hardest challenge I find is the mental noise in my head and of late I’ve really prayed to the LORD about this.”

Oh yes, Jacqui, so true! Very good observation!! 🙂

In fact, there are times when we get His peace quickly after having prayed and then there are times when we need to wait a looooong time on Him. This mental stuff can be really confusing AND discouraging ….. you are so right, that is exactly where Satan has a field to play and he plays his role brilliantly. 😛

1 Kings ch 19 vs 1-12 Elijah v 4 went into the wilderness: v 9 into a cave v 11 on a mountain: THERE THE LORD SPOKE: NOT IN THE WIND OR EARTHQUAKE, A FIRE, (BUT, IN A STILL SMALL VOICE.) My note in the Bible says : “a delicate whispering voice.” Ps 46 speaks about THE GREATNESS OF GOD. I guess that the Psalmist felt that to REALIZE THIS GREATNESS: so, v BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD. to know what we need to do as a result: RECOGNIZE THAT GOD WILL BE EXALTED.

THERE THE LORD SPOKE: NOT IN THE WIND OR EARTHQUAKE, A FIRE, (BUT, IN A STILL SMALL VOICE.) My note in the Bible says : ”a delicate whispering voice.”

That is a good explanation, dear Bernie. I gladly admit that I have always had the tender and silent way God had met Elijah on my mind and for many years I really wondered whether it was true since I expected God would be much LOUDER, like many a preacher in charismatic and Pentecostal circles. 😉

I PRAISE GOD THAT OFTEN WITH IDLE TIME BEFORE THE LORD THAT HE GIVES ME A SONG OF WORSHIP LIKE “EXALTED” AS I STATED ABOVE “FOR HIS NAME IS EXALTED, HIS GLORY ABOVE HEAVEN AND EARTH! HOLY IS THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY WHO SITTETH ON THE THRONE AND WHO LIVES FOREVER MORE!”

Beautiful post! I am still trying to practice being silent in His presence. Oftentimes when I sit down and devote my quiet time to God, distracting thoughts just happen to come across my mind. Sometimes I say, “No! I can think about that later..” and then I put aside these thoughts. I admit it can be challenging to do so. I am thankful for God’s patience =)

Ha! It is indeed challenging to try to put away thoughts in order to search His presence. I have begun to do so more than 20 years ago and in difficult times when I doubted God’s presence, I even practiced different methods to FEEL Him again. Briefly, it was often very exhausting and even tormenting when I tried to get rid of several thoughts and it did not work at all. But there were other times when thoughts somehow effortlessly “left me” and disappeared into nirvana. Joseph, I was truly wondering WHY all of a sudden such things happened. 🙄 Today it seems to me, more and more, that it has ALWAYS been God who took those thoughts away that hindered me to perceive his permanent presence in my life. Or in other words, as Jesus said,

“…for apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5 ESV)

It has never been easy for me to admit that I am as helpless, weak, and and dependent as a little child on God, meanwhile in every area of life. But now I know it is the truth. 😉

May I tell you that I (almost) always forget to lean on His strength? Indeed, it is always God who allows Satan to bring me to the end of my rope until I cry out, “If YOU don’t help me now, nobody can!!!” Alas, sometimes I need VERY long until I truly dare to trust God more than my own wisdom.

By the way, your comment about leaning on His strength in weak areas was a timely reminder for me right now since I have been somehow stuck in a severe trial which – seen from the outside – makes no sense to me; it only causes much pain. However, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28 ESV)
That gives me some hope…

Thank you, dear Susanne, for posting this as a “Featured Article” on your blog. You have written so many important things over the last 2 1/2 years on here, but the need for us to enter into our wildernesses rest and hear HIS whisper is the most important thing. Hebrews ch. 4 bears this out and to not do so is to live our lives in unbelief.

True faith is a state of rest, even when He gives us a task to do. It is interesting to me how Moses would daily go into the Tent of Meeting to be with God and all the people would stand in the opening of their tents and watch him go by. Not one of them joined him, but they preferred their own tents of unbelief to meeting with God and thus they murmured and complained against God all those forty years. God often puts us into our wilderness times to bring us to an end of ourselves and our doings so that we can “be still and know that He is God” and know HIS wilderness whispered voice.

Your life and your many daily times alone, your “breaks” that you take, with the Lord have been a shining example to me. I must admit that I have been slow to follow, but our Daddy is getting through to me about how important it is. Thank you so much for being who your are IN the Son,

I do not know whether what I wrote was important, however, sometimes the Lord nudges me to read some of my ‘old’ stuff and I wonder, “Who the heck wrote THIS?” XD

To me, this post was a good reminder and confirmation as to God’s leading in my current life situations today as I realized while rereading it.

That is indeed interesting what you said about the whole people only watching Moses meeting God. I presume they murmured and complained because they did NOT know HIM Who provided everything they needed in His perfect time. It is the same with our prayer breaks, I think. As for me, I truly need them in order to get my restless mind settled and to see (sometimes afterwards and sometimes even during my prayer times) how God answers my requests. He does not hear all of our prayers immediately, yet He always answers them, sooner or later. Without ever praying we might be inclined to believe that all things happen accidentally or that Satan might be the ruler of our lives if everything we expected turns out wrong in our view.

Thank you so much for checking out this old post once again, my dear Michael. You are a continued encouragement to me! 🙂

“Just recently I realized that the quieter my soul became, the more directly I could hear what God really wanted to let me know. It is not even necessary that God uses words. There is a sudden and immediate awareness of what is true and right and pure, even without words.”

This is SO profound and God breathed and I experience this often when I write. I start off with a thought of my own and then HE takes over and makes what is written His. Now to come to the place where my WHOLE DAY works this way! I just read the following on today’s Oswald Chambers devotional and it fits…

“Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.”

Ha! Michael, now I know why God did not let me quote Chambers from this devotional since you did!!! 🙂 I had already begun to copy and paste this quote in one of my replies on “It’s Hight Time to leave”, but God said, “No.” Without any explanation but, “Later.” He is ‘A Man of Few Words’, as you said to me lately, indeed. XD

I guess now I should link from this other post to your comment above, too. 😉

My wonderful sister in Christ,
It is so good to be listening to Him in sync as what He does through us dovetails together. In a lot of ways we have a joint blog together when He moves on our hearts to write, even though we do not try to write a joint article. 🙂 This fellowship with you in the Spirit is such a blessing! Thanks for your uplifting replies to us.
Michael 🐻

“Remaining silent and to really LISTEN from an open heart will make us hear more things than before. Even, we might read between the lines when others tell us something or write us. A continued heart connection to God is prerequisite here, I guess.”

Once again you have been given insight by the Spirit. ⭐ As I read this I was reminded of what John wrote regarding Jesus in this matter,

But Jesus [for His part] did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all [men]; And He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man [needed no evidence from anyone about men], for He Himself knew what was in human nature. [He could read men’s hearts.] [I Sam. 16:7.] (John 2:24-25, AMP)

I believe that as we come into that place of total rest in Him with our ear to His heart like John was at the last supper, we will not only hear His thoughts and will for us, but hear His thoughts regarding all who speak and write to us. Having the wisdom to properly use this information is where the real test is. Will we love them as He loves them and answer with words of light and life as He did? T. Austin Sparks wrote,

Paul is rich on the matter of discerning love. “…having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). “The eyes of your heart enlightened” discerning love. Love is as far removed from blindness as heaven from earth. “Love is blind”? No – not true love. The fact is that true love sees everything, but transcends everything. The love of Christ for His disciples was not blind love that did not know His men, love that was duped, deceived, misled, but eventually found out that they were not the men He thought they were. No, “he… knew what was in man” (John 2:24). His love saw everything, could tell them beforehand exactly what they would do; but love persisted in face of it all. Love is a great seeing thing. If you are consumed with a burning love for the Lord, you will be very quick of scent as to what is doubtful and questionable. You will not need to be frequently and continuously told when a thing is not right. No, love for the Lord will bring you quickly to see and to sense there is something that needs to be adjusted. You may not know what it is at the time, but you have a sense that all is not well. Love will do it.

Dearest sister,
I totally loved this post. 🙂
It also links very well with a verse the Lord has been whispering to my heart, from

Song of Solomon 8:5:
Who is this coming up from the wilderness,
Leaning upon her beloved?

The wilderness is our opportunity to “come up”. To rise above the mundane, the fleshly, the worldly, the common experience… Like the eagles in Isaiah 40:31:

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

And how do we come up and rise above our humanity?
By LEANING UPON OUR BELOVED!
That is the secret.

When we choose to be weak and allow His strength to fill us.
When we choose to glory only in Him, and only boast of what a great God we have!
When we choose to allow Him to make the cross (His and ours) ever more real.
When we choose to die not only to the obvious sins, but also to our tendency to do supposedly “good works”.

“Good works” that have not been inspired by the Holy Spirit and prepared by our Heavenly Father are not good works at all. What is born of the flesh is flesh!

And we’re so slow of hearing and hard-hearted that sometimes we need a “messenger of Satan to harass [us], to keep [us] from becoming conceited”. God doesn’t voluntarily afflict us so… but sometimes He has to, because sometimes “tough love” is the only way we can learn the lesson.

I love how Paul ends 2 Corinthians 12:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Perhaps if we were a little “softer” and less conceited we wouldn’t need to be afflicted so much?

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“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."
(John 3:16-17 ESV)

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